KromA Creates Heavenly Effects for David Gray

KromA delved inside a delightfully unbalanced mind in providing CG and visual effects services for the new David Gray video Hospital Food. The studio created a fantasy sequence that occupies the central part of the video in which a patient at a mental institution is overwhelmed by heavenly visions. The sequence features a wild mix of 2D and 3D animation and live action elements representing a day-glo world of angels in hospital gowns, smiling suns and lavender space ships.

Shot by the directing collective known as Rainbows & Vampires, the video tells the story of a young man who checks into a psychiatric hospital. Appalled by the hospitals approach to therapy, which mainly consists of sedating patients with large doses of drugs, the man ignites a revolt which is foiled when he is force fed a handful of pills. That sends him off into a hallucinogenic reverie.

The world the man imagines is like a brightly hued pastel painting come to life. The scenery is constantly evolving and it is populated by hospital patients who soar through the air or dance rapturously through the Eden-like landscape. ?The environment is meant to be magical and its very stylized, explained KromA visual effects supervisor Bert Yukich. ?The look is similar to the Peter Max illustrations of the 60s, but the animation style is more along the lines of quirky Monty Python cartoons.

Although much of the art work appears flat, the fantasy environment was produced entirely in 3D. Live action characters, who had been shot against green screen, were integrated into the background by Yukich using an Avid DS Nitris system. ?The deadline was tight?we had just a week to turn out a full minute of CG, but our artists really enjoyed the challenge, Yukich said. ?We had a lot of creative freedom in designing the look of the fantasy world and in animating the scene.

?Were well known for our photo realistic CG, but were fortunate enough to have a diversecreative team and a loyal clientle that will offer many styles of work, like in this video, added Yukich.

Hospital Food is taken from Grays critically-acclaimed release Life in Slow Motion on Ato Records.